Want to Boycott Monsanto and Koch Industries? You Can. There’s an App.

Millions of shoppers are patronizing Koch Industries, Monsanto and other shadowy corporate conglomerates, without even knowing it.  You won’t find too many items on the shelf with “Koch Brothers” or “Monsanto” stamped in big letters.

Those two companies (and others) have more tentacles than all the squid and octopi in the seven seas.  Their products are everywhere.

And now there’s a phone app — Buycott — enabling everyone to boycott companies whose ethics they hate.

The app is nonpartisan.  It allows the user to scan the barcode to determine the ownership background of a product.  There’s been such a huge demand that the developer of the app, Ivan Pardo, is frantically trying to keep up.  He said:

“The workload is a bit overwhelming now.  Our Android app was just recently released and the surge of new users today has highlighted a serious bug on certain devices that needs to be fixed immediately. So all other development tasks I was working on get put on hold until I can get this bug fixed.”

The app also allows the user to take part in online campaigns to boycott companies they don’t like, OR to support those companies whose ethics they agree with.  Buycott’s users are also encouraged to keep its database updated by adding products not yet recognized by Buycott.  Ivan Pardo said:

“It was critical to allow users to create campaigns.  I don’t think it’s Buycott’s role to tell people what to buy. We simply want to provide a platform that empowers consumers to make well-informed purchasing decisions.”

YES.

Talk about “find a need and fill it” — this is a need that’s gone unmet for decades.  Back in the ‘60s, Dick Gregory did a speech making fun of anti-war protesters who would shower up with Dial Soap (made by Dow Chemical Company) and then go out to protest against Dow Chemical for making Napalm.

45 years later — Problem solved.